NBA Daily Fantasy Helper: Tuesday 5/15/18

If you're new to daily fantasy basketball -- maybe you started your DFS journey during the MLB or NFL seasons, or maybe basketball is your sport and this will be your first year giving it a shot -- you're in for a treat. The NBA scene changes hugely on a week-to-week, day-to-day, and -- depending on injury news -- even a minute-to-minute basis, making every slate a unique one that requires an ever-changing approach.

With so much changing so quickly, we're here with plenty of tools to help you out. We have daily projections, a matchup heat map, a lineup optimizer, and a ton of other great resources to help give you an edge in our new Single Game Boost format for the Conference Finals.

For these contests, you'll fill out a five-man roster with a $60,000 salary cap. Those five players include an MVP, a Star, a Pro, and two utility players. The MVP will have his FanDuel points doubled. The Star will have his fantasy points multiplied by 1.5. The Pro gets a multiplier of 1.2. The two utility players will return the standard FanDuel points.

We'll also be coming at you with this primer every day, breaking down a few of the day's top plays.

Let's take a look at who you should target on today's one-game slate.

LeBron James (FanDuel Price: $20,000)

Even after a down night to open the Eastern Conference Finals against Boston, you're not going to want to fade LeBron James tonight. Sunday's dud was only the second time in 12 playoff games that he scored fewer than 50 FanDuel points this postseason. He had also topped 62 in each of his five games leading up to this one, as well as seven of his previous eight. His playoff average remains the best in the NBA, at 61.3 per game.

Even with the Cavaliers' starters leaving the game in the fourth quarter, LeBron played 36 minutes, and that really looks to be his absolute floor at this stage of the playoffs. He played 40-plus in four of his five games before this one, and that is a more realistic workload -- one we can expect to see if tonight's game is even somewhat close. With the Celtics favored by only one point, a close game looks likely.

Getting by far the best floor and highest ceiling on the slate is well worth paying up for, and with such an edge over everyone else on the slate, LeBron is the easy top pick for your MVP slot.